Molecular and biological analysis of echovirus 9 strain isolated from a diabetic child

The full-length infectious cDNA clone was constructed and sequenced from the strain DM of echovirus 9, which was recently isolated from a 6-week-old child at the clinical onset of type 1 diabetes. Parallel with the isolate DM, the full-length infectious cDNA clone of the prototype strain echovirus 9 Barty (Barty-INF), was constructed and sequenced. Genetic relationships of the sequenced echo 9 viruses to the other members of the human enterovirus type B species were studied by phylogenetic analyses. Comparison of capsid protein sequences showed that the isolate DM was closely related to both prototype strains: Hill and Barty-INF. The only exception was the inner capsid protein VP4 where serotype specificity was not evident and the isolate DM clustered with the strain Hill and the strain Barty-INF with echovirus 30 Bastianni. Likewise, the nonstructural protein coding region, P2P3, of isolate DM was more similar to strain Hill than to strain Barty-INF. However, like echovirus 9 Barty, the isolate DM contained the RGD-motif in the carboxy terminus of capsid protein VP1. By blocking experiments using an RGD-containing peptide and a polyclonal rabbit antiserum to the alpha(v)beta(3)-integrin, it was shown that this molecule works as a cellular receptor for isolate DM. By using primary human islets, it was shown that the isolate DM is capable of infecting insulin-producing beta-cells like the corresponding prototype strains did. However, only isolate DM was clearly cytolytic for beta-cells. The infectious clones that were made allow further investigations of the molecular features responsible for the diabetogenicity of the isolate DM.     

I Am Quite Mellow But I Wouldn't Say Everyone Else Is”: How UK Students Compare Their Drinking Behavior to Their Peers'

Background: Excessive drinking is commonplace at UK Universities. Individuals may misperceive how much they drink compared to others and are less likely to think that they will suffer adverse consequences. Young people often distance themselves and their friends from ‘problem drinkers’. Objectives: The aim of the study was to explore how student drinkers compared their own drinking behaviors to the drinking behaviors of others. Methods: An online survey was completed by 416 students aged 18–30 (68.5% female). They were asked ‘how do you think your drinking compares with other people like you?' and ‘how do you think your behavior when you drink compares with other people like you?’ Answers were subjected to thematic analysis. Results: The first main theme was about ‘identification as a ‘good’ drinker’. Participants suggested their own behavior when drinking was similar to their sober behavior. Further, they viewed themselves as more able to maintain a balance between staying in control and having fun while drinking. The second main theme was about ‘distancing from being a ‘bad’ drinker. Participants distanced themselves from negative prototypical drinkers, such compulsive or anti-social drinkers. They also attributed their own drinking behaviors to situational factors, but described other people as intentionally violent or aggressive. Conclusions/Importance: These findings may explain the failure of some health messages to change drinking behaviors. If drinkers perceive that their behavior when they drink is better than other people's then they may discount intervention messages. Targeting these biases could be incorporated into future interventions.     

Cool or Fool? The Association Between Drinker Prototypes and Alcohol Consumption Using Multiple Time-Point Diary Assessments in Adolescent Males

Objectives: There is still limited understanding of how different kinds of drinker prototypes are associated with adolescent drinking. This study uses the strengths of multiple time-point diary measures (enhanced validity of alcohol use measurement) to test the predictive value of abstainer, moderate and heavy drinker prototypes in social situations. We examined whether the favorability of these prototypes (i.e., “prototype evaluation”), the perceived similarity of these prototypes to one's self-image (i.e., “prototype similarity”) assessed at baseline, and their interaction predict alcohol use assessed in social situations. Methods: Drinker prototypes were assessed in a baseline sample of 599 adolescents. Subsequently, a sample of 77 alcohol-using 16 to 18-year-old males reported their Friday and Saturday evening drinking behavior the next day during eight weeks (resulting in 495 daily measures). Alcohol use was assessed in the company of peers. Results: The more adolescents perceived themselves as similar to heavy drinker prototypes the higher their alcohol consumption in social situations. The more adolescents held favorable abstainer prototypes, the lower their alcohol consumption. The interaction between prototype evaluation and similarity was not significant. Conclusions: By using a more reliable and valid method to assess adolescents' alcohol use, the present study showed that more “extreme” drinker prototypes (i.e., heavy drinker and abstainer prototypes) are most predictive of adolescent alcohol use in social situations. Increasing the perceived dissimilarity to heavy drinker prototypes and the favorability of abstainer prototypes may therefore be important targets in interventions aimed at reducing adolescents' alcohol consumption.     

基于UHPLC-Q-TOF/MS的地榆化学成分分析及大鼠体内代谢研究

目的  采用超高效液相色谱和-四级杆串联飞行时间质谱(UHPLC-Q-TOF/MS)法分析地榆水提物在大鼠血清、尿液及粪便中的原型成分及代谢产物, 探讨地榆中活性成分在大鼠体内的代谢途径。方法  采用Thermo AcclaimTM RSLC 120 C₁₈色谱柱(3.0 mm×100 mm, 2.2 μm), 以0.1%甲酸水溶液(A)-乙腈(B)为流动相进行梯度洗脱, 流速0.4 mL·min-1, 进样量3 μL, 柱温40 ℃。运用电喷雾离子源(ESI), 扫描范围m/z 50~1 500, 正、负离子模式采集数据。通过比较灌胃地榆水提物后大鼠血清、尿液和粪便样品和空白组样品的差异, 对原型成分及其代谢产物进行鉴定。结果  灌胃给予地榆水提物后, 从大鼠血清、尿液及粪便中鉴定出69个外源性成分, 包括24个原型成分和45个代谢产物。其中24个原型成分包括16个酚类成分、7个三萜类成分及1个单萜烯醇苷。地榆水提物在大鼠体内的代谢途径主要包括还原、甲基化、脱水、氧化、硫酸化及葡萄糖醛酸结合等。结论  所鉴定出的原型成分和代谢产物可为进一步解析地榆体内代谢过程, 阐明其药效物质基础提供实验依据。      

The Impact of Recreational Marijuana Legislation in Washington,DC on Marijuana Use Cognitions

Background: There is little published research that tests the effect of recreational marijuana legislation on risk-related cognitions and how individuals respond immediately after legislative approval. Objectives: The objective was to test whether learning about the passage of Initiative 71, a voter referendum that legalized recreational use of marijuana in the District of Columbia, would lead individuals to adopt more favorable marijuana cognitions than they had before the Initiative was passed. Methods: Undergraduate students (N = 402) completed two web-based questionnaires in 2014. The first questionnaire was completed prior to the referendum vote and the follow-up questionnaire was completed after voters approved Initiative 71. Attitudes, perceived norms, intentions, prototypes, and willingness were measured at time 1 and time 2. Study hypotheses were tested using repeated-measures analysis of covariance. Results: Results showed that attitudes, intentions, perceived norms, and willingness to use marijuana were more favorable after Initiative 71 was passed. However, the increase in attitudes and willingness was moderated by past experience with marijuana whereby the increases were statistically significant only among those with the least experience. The increase in perceived norms was also moderated by past experience whereby increases were statistically significant among those who were moderate or heavy users. The passage of Initiative 71 had no effect on favorable prototypes. Conclusion/Importance: Legalization may have the unintended outcome of leading to more favorable intentions to use marijuana and might lead abstainers or experimental users to become more frequent users of marijuana via more positive attitudes and willingness towards marijuana use.     

The social meaning of disability: a reflection on categorisation,stigma and identity

As disability becomes an ever more salient concept in international political and legal discourse, its social meaning must be better understood. Traditionally defined in medical terms and as an individual problem, it has for the last several decades increasingly become a socio‐politically defined phenomenon. Disability pride has emerged as a social movement patterned after ethnic minority and sexual orientation movements. The one billion people who count as disabled nevertheless have illnesses and impairments that are largely understood as medical problems. Medicine continues to exert great influence on the social meaning of disability in general and the social valuation of various illnesses and impairments in particular. Whereas specific conditions may be socially valued, the overall category and label of disability connotes marginality and stigma. Under these conditions, disability policy, which ought to be a universal concern, risks being construed as a marginal and special‐interest issue rather than a broadly relevant topic; this has potentially negative consequences for the majority of disabled people.     

Understanding the Association Between Relative Sociability Prototypes and University Students' Drinking Intention

Background: Evaluations of “the prototypical nondrinker” and of “the prototypical regular drinker” have been demonstrated to hold associations with more harmful drinking behavior, yet the extent to which the relative evaluation of these prototypes is associated with drinking intention remains to be tested. Objectives: To explore whether relatively unfavorable nondrinker prototypes are associated with increased drinking intention and whether this relationship is moderated by personality variables. Methods: Among a student sample (n = 543), alcohol-related sociability prototype measures were used to compute an index of the perceived sociability of regular drinkers relative to nondrinkers (“relative sociability prototypes”). Measures of drinking intention, conscientiousness, extraversion and sensation seeking impulsivity were also taken. Results: Most students perceived the prototypical nondrinker unfavorably relative to the prototypical regular drinker (91%, n = 493). Simple slopes analyses indicated that extraversion moderated the strength of the relationship between relative sociability prototypes and drinking intention such that relatively negative evaluations of nondrinkers were only associated with increased intention to get drunk among more extraverted students. Conclusions/Importance: Prospective data and behavioral measures are needed to substantiate these findings, which suggest links between relative evaluations of nondrinkers, harmful drinking intention and personality traits. Evidence suggests that by challenging prejudicial beliefs concerning nondrinkers (as “unsociable”) and by targeting more extraverted students, safer drinking plans might be encouraged.     

Images of smokers and willingness to smoke among African American pre-adolescents: an application of the prototype/willingness model of adolescent health risk behavior to smoking initiation

OBJECTIVE: This study used the prototype/willingness model of adolescent health risk behavior to examine factors related to onset of smoking. METHODS: Two waves of data were collected from a panel of 742 African American children (mean age=10.5 at Wave 1) and their primary caregivers. Measures included cognitions outlined by the prototype model as well as self-reports of smoking by the parent and child. RESULTS: Structural equation modeling revealed a pattern consistent with expectations generated by the prototype model. The relation between contextual, familial, and dispositional factors-including neighborhood risk, parental smoking, and children's academic orientation-and the initiation of smoking at Wave 2, two years later, was mediated by the children's cognitions. Primary among these cognitions were the children's images of smokers and children's willingness to smoke. CONCLUSIONS: Smoking cognitions mediate the impact of important distal factors (such as context, family environment, and disposition) on the onset of smoking in children. Perhaps more important, it is possible to predict onset of smoking in African American children as young as age 10 by assessing the cognitive factors suggested by the prototype model.     

The process of change in brief psychotherapy: Effects of psychodynamic and cognitive–behavioral prototypes

Abstract

A brief psychodynamic psychotherapy was assessed using the Brazilian Portuguese version of the Psychotherapy Process Q-Set (PQS). Each session was scored for its adherence to expert psychodynamic therapy (PDT) and cognitive–behavioral therapy (CBT) prototypes derived from the PQS. Results revealed that the therapy process adhered more closely to prototypical CBT than prototypical PDT. Bivariate time-series analyses showed that prototype components capturing the client's adherence to ideal CBT behaviors and collaboration between therapist and client on ideal PDT and CBT behaviors predicted therapy progress. In addition, specific client symptoms influenced whether the therapist adhered to prototypical PDT or CBT behaviors.